Female, Nonrural Physicians Deliver More Telehealth Care: Study

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Dive Brief:

• Female physicians and doctors who work in nonrural practices deliver more care via telehealth, according to a study published this week in Health Affairs. 
• The research also found differences in virtual care utilization by specialty. For example, 23% of psychiatrists delivered all or nearly all of their visits through telehealth, compared with fewer than 1% for physicians in all other specialties. 
• The findings offer insight into long-term patterns of telehealth utilization in the U.S., and help show how virtual care might be affecting care access and outcomes, the study authors wrote.

Dive Insight:

This latest study analyzed Medicare fee-for-service claims data from 2022 in a bid to figure out which patients and providers would be most impacted by changes to telehealth policy.

The research could be helpful as lawmakers consider extending or codifying Medicare flexibilities enacted after the COVID-19 pandemic emergency, some of which are set to expire at the end of the year. These policies include removing requirements for in-person care after a mental health visit and allowing patients to receive telehealth services in their homes.

Though lawmakers have shown bipartisan support for expanding access to telehealth — and advanced some legislation that would extend the flexibilities — questions still linger about virtual care’s cost, quality and impacts on in-person care.

Researchers in the Health Affairs study determined physician specialty was one factor that impacted virtual care use. Telehealth claims made up 46.3% of evaluation and management visits for psychiatrists, compared with just 7.4% for primary care physicians. 

That tracks with other research finding mental healthcare is a common use case for telehealth, and that virtual care could increase the number of people who receive treatment for common disorders. 

Region also impacted physicians’ telehealth use — another significant finding, given advocates have argued virtual options could improve access to care in rural communities with few physical healthcare facilities.

However, physicians in metropolitan areas provided 8.3% of evaluation and management visits through telehealth, compared with 5.3% for physicians in rural areas.

The finding was consistent across specialties. For example, more than 49% of visits by psychiatrists in metropolitan areas were delivered virtually, compared with more than 44% in rural communities. Some experts have raised concerns that limited access to reliable, high-speed internet could hamper telehealth use in rural areas.

Female physicians were also more likely to utilize telehealth compared with their male counterparts. More than 9% of evaluation and management claims by women physicians were conducted via telehealth, compared with over 6% for male doctors. 

That finding aligns with other research. Yet the reasons behind female doctors’ increased telehealth adoption requires more study, according to the researchers. It’s possible that female physicians have more family responsibilities, and they value the scheduling and location flexibilities that telehealth offers, they wrote.